Agricultural Processing and Marketing Grant Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Revocation of approval and recovery of grant

8.—(1) If at any time after the Department has approved any expenditure for the purposes of Community aid or for the purposes of a grant under these Regulations it appears to the Department that—

(a) any condition subject to which the approval was given, the grant has been made or the Community aid has been paid has not been complied with;

(b) the operation in respect of which the expenditure was incurred has not been properly carried out;

(c) the operation has been or is being unreasonably delayed beyond the time limits set out in the notification of grant or is unlikely to be completed;

(d) the operation was commenced before the date on which the Department gave written permission to do so;

(e) the Commission has decided to reduce, suspend or discontinue the Community aid; or

(f) the applicant—

(i) has failed to comply with a requirement imposed by or under regulation 5 or 6(2)(b);

(ii) has intentionally obstructed any officer in the exercise of his powers under regulation 6; or

(iii) has given information on any matter relevant to the giving of the approval or the making of the payment relevant to the approval which is false or misleading in a material particular,

the Department may revoke the approval in respect of the whole or part of the expenditure and, where any payment has been made by way of Community aid or of grant under these Regulations, may on demand recover an amount equal to the whole or any part of the payment which has been so made.

(2) Before revoking an approval in whole or in part under paragraph (1), the Department shall—

(a) give to the applicant a written notification of the reasons for the action proposed to be taken by the Department;

(b) afford the applicant an opportunity of appearing before and being heard by a person appointed for the purpose by the Department; and

(c) consider the report by a person so appointed and supply a copy of the report to the applicant.